18 June 2017
I. Introduction
-- turn
in Bibles to Revelation 3:14-22
14“To the angel of the church in Laodicea
write:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness,
the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
15‘I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16‘So because you are
lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17‘Because
you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and
you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked, 18I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the
shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes
so that you may see. 19‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore
be zealous and repent. 20‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with
him, and he with Me. 21‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with
Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
-- I
just finished reading John Bevere’s book, Drawing
Near, and as I was reflecting on the overall purpose of this text -- to
help Christians to draw near to God again -- to honestly seek a better
relationship with Jesus -- I couldn’t help but think of the trip we took a
couple of years ago out west to Arizona
-- if
you remember, we stopped in San Antonio to look around, and I made a point of
carrying Kim and Brooke to see the Alamo -- we had come all the way to San
Antonio, and I couldn’t let them leave without seeing it -- I felt it was
something that everyone should see because it’s part of our history and an
important part of the history of Texas -- and there’s a lot that you can learn
about life and courage and faith from visiting the site
-- to be
honest, though, the first time I saw the Alamo myself, I was disappointed -- I
had gone to San Antonio for a work trip, and one of the first things I wanted
to do was to go see the Alamo -- I grabbed a brochure and a walking map from
the motel lobby -- and right there on the cover was a picture of the Alamo that
was just like it looked in the John Wayne movie -- so I headed out, following
the map to find it
-- I
walked and walked and walked, but I could nothing that looked like the pictures
from the movie -- nothing that looked like the picture on the brochure
-- after a
couple of hours of searching, I finally found it -- the Alamo is about the size
of this building and is surrounded by modern, high-rise office buildings -- you
can't even see it unless you are standing right in front of it -- the only
thing left on the site is the mission building, tucked into a small alcove near
a busy main street in downtown San Antonio -- it looked nothing like the movie
-- it looked nothing like what I remembered from watching John Wayne fight
those Mexicans years ago
-- after my
disappointing visit to the Alamo, I did some internet research -- it turns out,
the movie wasn't actually shot in San Antonio at the site of the Alamo -- it
was shot at Alamo Village, which is about two hours outside of town
-- I also
found out the whole town is fake -- it is nothing but a movie set -- if you go
there, it looks like an abandoned wild west town -- you can see a street lined
with store fronts and you can see the Alamo, looking just like I remembered it
from the movie, but it's all fake -- there's no real buildings here -- there's
only the fronts of the buildings
-- if you
walk through the entrances of the buildings -- in just two or three steps --
you'll find yourself standing outside again -- there's not building there -- it
may look like the real thing on the outside, but there's nothing on the inside
-- it's fake -- it's all a facade
II. Scripture Lesson -- Revelation 3:14-22
-- that
remembrance came to my mind as I was reading Bevere’s thoughts on this passage
from Revelation -- just to remind you of the context of this passage, the
Apostle John was on the island of Patmos on the Lord’s Day when the heavens were
opened and he was given a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ -- Jesus came to him
with messages for the seven churches of Asia Minor, in what is now modern-day
Turkey -- here in this passage, Jesus gives John the message for the church at
Laodicea
-- look
at verse 14 again
14“To the angel of the church in Laodicea
write:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness,
the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
15‘I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16‘So because you are
lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17‘Because
you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and
you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked, 18I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may
become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the
shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes
so that you may see.
-- the
church at Laodicea had problems -- Jesus said it was a lukewarm church -- it
was neither hot nor cold, and it left a bad taste in His mouth -- He says here
that He was about to spit them out of His mouth -- in other words, Jesus was
ready to just give up on these people -- He was fed up with them and their
indifference to Jesus and His commands
-- Jesus
said that He wished they were either hot or cold -- one or the other -- because
then they might know who they were -- as it was, the church was fooling itself
into believing it was something it was not -- the church was nothing more than
a facade -- a church in name only -- as Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:5, a people
having a form of godliness, but denying its power -- they acted religious, but
were not living in the power or presence of God
-- if the church at Laodicea had
been a “hot” church, then their faith and their reliance on Jesus would have
been obvious to all -- they would have been alive -- full of good works --
basing their actions and their deeds on true doctrine -- the presence of Jesus
would have been felt by all who came near --
it’s the presence of Jesus that makes a church hot
-- I have a Christian friend who
worked at the University of Georgia -- and every day at lunch, he would meet
with a couple more Christians -- they would read the Bible together and share
about their faith and their walk with Jesus -- they didn’t advertise what they
were doing -- they didn’t put out a sign that said, “church meeting”
-- one day, they were in the room
where they met for lunch, and someone knocked on the door -- when they opened
it, the guy said, “Look, I don’t know what you are doing in here for lunch
every day, but it’s obvious there’s something different about you -- and I want
it in my life, too” -- that’s what a hot church looks like -- without even
saying a word, others can sense the presence of Jesus in such a tangible way
that it draws them in
-- and I think we all know what a “cold”
church looks like -- you may have visited one of those in the past -- lifeless
-- dead -- no works -- it’s just there in name only -- and there’s no power, no
presence, no passion
-- the reason Jesus told the
Laodiceans that He could even wish they were a cold church was because it would
have been easy for them to see how far they had fallen if they had just looked
with honest and open eyes -- people know when Jesus is not there -- they know
when they’re just going through the motions -- and if the Laodiceans had been
cold, it would have been easy for Jesus to reach them
-- but they were lukewarm -- not hot
-- but not cold -- just a spark of life to them -- just enough warmth to keep
them alive, but not enough to warm anyone or to spread out into a raging fire
-- kind of like those old gas heaters we used to have in the house -- they’d
keep the house warm -- they’d keep the chill off -- but they wouldn’t make it
hot, no matter how high you turned it up -- the only way you could get truly
warm was to stand right in front of them -- and people on the other side of the
room didn’t really benefit
-- that’s what this church was like
-- it was lukewarm -- it wasn’t cold enough that everyone knew there was a
problem -- and it wasn’t hot enough so that others were drawn to the presence
of Jesus -- it just kind of existed in a self-serving fashion, with the church
living mostly on their own power and in their own presence
-- so Jesus tells them they need to
open their eyes -- they need to see what is going on, because they are in very
real danger of their fire totally burning out -- He tells them they need to
quit depending on themselves and to stop thinking they had everything they
needed, because they were missing the one thing they desperately required --
His presence
-- verse 19
19‘Those whom I love, I reprove and
discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20‘Behold, I stand at the door and
knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and
will dine with him, and he with Me. 21‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to
sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father
on His throne. 22‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.’”
-- here’s where God spoke to me
about Koinonia and our church this week -- we all know Revelation 3:20 -- “Here
I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
-- we’ve
all heard that verse before -- we’ve heard it preached -- we’ve heard it taught
-- I’ve even preached on it myself -- and, more often than not, the focus of
the message around that verse is evangelistic -- we make that verse about
salvation, and we tell unbelievers, “Jesus is right there, knocking at the door
to your heart -- and all you have to do is believe in Him and ask Him to
forgive you and He will come into your heart and you’ll have a relationship
with Him” -- am I right?
-- but
remember who Jesus is talking to here -- it’s not unbelievers -- it’s the
church -- it’s His people this verse is spoken for
-- look
at verse 19 again -- Jesus doesn’t call unbelievers to salvation -- no, He’s
calling believers to be earnest -- to be passionate -- to be real in their
faith -- to repent of their self-sufficiency -- to repent of just doing church
and not being the church -- to turn back from who they are and what they are
doing -- turn back to what? -- turn back to Who? -- yeah, turn back to Jesus
--
somewhere along the way, this church lost its focus -- it stopped focusing on
Jesus and started looking inward -- it stopped relying on Jesus and started
relying on itself -- there was merely a form of godliness, but no power or
presence
-- and
so Jesus speaks to this church and tells them, “I love you -- I want you back
-- be earnest and repent -- I am here knocking -- hear my knock -- hear my call
-- open the door, and let me back in -- put me on the throne of your heart
again”
III. Closing
-- God
spoke to me through this passage this week -- you know we’ve been struggling
over what to do with Koinonia -- over the direction we should go -- and what’s
the one thing we’ve said over and over? -- we need to get more people in here
-- we need to go out and invite people to come -- we need to have events to
tell people about our church
-- so
let me ask you this -- What are we seeking when we pray for Koinonia? -- what
are we saying when we say that we need more people? -- are we seeking Jesus or are
we seeking people? -- where is our focus?
-- every
church and every pastor wants their church to grow -- we certainly want to have
more people join us -- but why? -- Why do we want Koinonia to grow? -- Is it
for us or for God?
-- if I’m
honest -- and God showed me that this week -- I’ve been wanting Koinonia to
grow for selfish reasons -- I’ve been wanting it to grow out of pride -- to be
able to point to how many people are coming -- to justify myself and this
church
-- Kyle
Idlemann, who wrote the book, “Not a Fan,” said recently in Outreach Magazine, “When
I know myself better, I realize even the good I do is oftentimes motivated by
my selfishness, my pride, and my desire to impress other people.”
-- I’m
afraid I’ve been there, too -- I’m afraid we’ve all been there
-- so
God showed me in this passage the true purpose of a church -- a church doesn’t
exist for itself -- a church doesn’t exist to draw people in and grow larger --
a church exists for the sole purpose of seeking and glorifying Christ
-- any
growth that follows is a result of the presence of Christ and nothing more --
any growth that follows is the grace of God drawing seeking hearts to Him
--
churches are defined by the presence of Christ and not by the number of people
on the church roll or the amount of money in the bank
-- the
church at Laodicea was a large church -- a rich church -- a famous and
well-known church in the community -- it had a lot of people -- a lot of power
-- but it had ceased to be a real church -- and Jesus was going to spit them
out of His mouth unless they repented and turned back to Him
-- the
message God gave me this week was that if His presence is there, others will
come -- it is His presence that should draw people to gather as a church -- not
a fancy building or prestige in the community -- not even good works -- God’s
grace is the catalyst for growth
-- God
told me that we need to seek Him and not people -- we need to turn back to the
One who gives our lives meaning and purpose
-- that
doesn’t mean we shouldn’t reach out to others -- that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t
invite others to come and join us -- that’s what the Great Commission in
Matthew 28:18-20 is all about
-- but
we need to make sure we are inviting others out of the right motives, not out
of selfish desires -- we need to make sure we are inviting others to join us
because we want them to experience the presence of God and not just because we
want more people
-- I want
to leave you with the story of a woman who was given a beautiful plant for a
birthday gift from the local florist -- she loved plants and the house was
filled with them, and the one she received this day was just beautiful -- it
was so green and vibrant -- it was a “Bird of Paradise” plant with gorgeous
flowers already in bloom.
-- She took
that plant, and placed in just the right spot so that it would get the right
amount of light -- she watered it with care, and kept it fertilized with just
the right amount, keeping watch over it like a mother hen
-- but
there was a little problem -- it never seemed to get any bigger, no matter how
much she tried -- it was only after fretting over that plant for several weeks
that she realized it was made of silk -- it was mighty pretty, but it wasn’t
real -- she became so frustrated and angry at living a lie that she cast the
plant into the wastebasket and never looked back.
--
unless a church is built on Christ and Christ alone, it will never be alive --
it will never be real -- it will never be hot -- it may persist, but it will
persist as a lukewarm congregation -- a church in name only
-- let’s
commit this week to refocusing our efforts on seeking God and on drawing near
to Him with our lives and our hearts and our whole being
-- let’s
pray
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